How to turn off Camera when joining Zoom Meeting

If you want to turn off the camera when joining Zoom meeting, here is how you can do that. It is possible to enable or disable this setting using the Zoom app’s Settings panel, Local Group Policy Editor, and Registry Editor.

What does turn off my video when joining a meeting mean on Zoom?

When you join a Zoom meeting, it asks for two permissions – Camera and Microphone. Zoom automatically fires up the camera the second time when you join a Zoom meeting. In other words, it shows your face or video to the admin when you are about to join a call. If you do not want to do that, here is what setting you can change.

How to turn off Camera when joining Zoom Meeting

To turn off the camera when joining Zoom meeting via Zoom Settings, follow these steps:

1. Open the Zoom app on your PC.
2. Click the settings gear icon.
3. Switch to the Video tab on the left side.
4. Tick the Turn off my video when joining meeting checkbox.

Let’s check out these steps in detail.

First, open the Zoom desktop app on your computer and click on the settings gear icon at the top-right corner.

It opens up the Settings panel. You need to switch from the General tab to the Video tab. Here you can find a setting called Turn off my video when joining meeting.

You need to tick this checkbox.

After that, restart the Zoom app and try to join a meeting.

How to disable camera when joining Zoom meeting

To disable the camera when joining Zoom meeting using Group Policy Editor, follow these steps:

1. Search for gpedit.msc in the Taskbar search box.
2. Click on the individual result.
3. Go to Zoom Meetings Settings in Computer Configuration.
4. Double-click on the Turn off video camera when joining setting.
5. Select the Enabled option.
6. Click the OK button.

Before getting started, you must add Zoom’s Group Policy template in the Local Group Policy Editor. If you have already done that, you can follow these steps.

At first, you need to open the Local Group Policy Editor. For that, you can search for gpedit.msc in the Taskbar search box and click on the individual search result.

Once it is opened, navigate to the following path:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Classic Administrative Templates > Zoom Meetings > Zoom General Settings

If you added the Zoom Group Policy template in the User Configuration, you need to navigate the same path in User Configuration.

Double-click on the Turn off video camera when joining setting on your right side and select the Enabled option.

Click the OK button to save the change.

In case you want to revert this setting, you need to navigate to the same path, open the same setting, and select the Not Configured option.

How to hide the camera when joining Zoom meeting

To How to disable camera when joining Zoom meeting using Registry Editor, follow these steps:

1. Press Win+R to open the Run dialog.
2. Type regedit > press the Enter button > click the Yes option.
3. Go to Policies in HKLM.
4. Right-click on Policies > New > Key.
5. Name it as Zoom.
6. Right-click on Zoom > New > Key.
7. Name it as Zoom Meetings.
8. Right-click on Zoom Meetings > New > Key.
9. Name it as Meetings.
10. Right-click on Meetings > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
11. Name it as TurnOffVideoCameraOnJoin.
12. Double-click on it to set the Value data as 1.
13. Click the OK button and restart your computer.

Let’s find out more about the procedure.

To get started, you need to open the Registry Editor on your computer. For that, press Win+R, type regedit and press the Enter button. Once the UAC prompt appears, click the Yes option.

After that, navigate to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies

If you want to apply the change in your user account only, navigate to this path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies

Here you need to create some sub-keys. For that, right-click on the Policies, select New > Key, and set the name as Zoom.

Then, right-click on the Zoom key, choose New > Key, and name it Zoom Meetings.

Following that, right-click on the Zoom Meetings > New > Key and name it as Meetings.

Here you need to create a DWORD value. To do so, right-click on the Meetings key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name it as TurnOffVideoCameraOnJoin. By default, it has a Value data of 0. Double-click on it and set the Value data as 1.

Click the OK button and restart your computer.

If you want to reverse the change, you can navigate to the same path mentioned above and delete the TurnOffVideoCameraOnJoin DWORD value or set the Value data as 0.

Read: How to customize the Waiting Room in a Zoom meeting

How do I turn off the camera when I join the Zoom meeting?

To turn off the camera when you join Zoom meeting, open the Settings panel, go to the Video tab, and tick the Turn off my video when joining meeting checkbox. After that, Zoom won’t open the camera when you join a meeting.

That’s all!

Read: Best Zoom apps for Education, Productivity, Collaboration and Recording